Author

Abstract

An analysis for condensation from an isothermal vertical flat plate in mixed convection is reported. The entire mixed convection regime is divided into two regions. One region covers the forced-convection-dominated regime, and the other covers the free-convection-dominated regime. The governing system of equations is first transformed into a dimensionless form by the nonsimilar transformation, separately for each regime, and then solved using the local nonsimilarity method along with a finite difference scheme. Two nonsimilarity parameters are introduced. The parameter xi f = Grx Re2 x characterizes the effect of buoyancy force on forced convection, while the parameter xi n = Rex Gr1 x /2 characterizes the effect of forced flow on free convection. Numerical results for pure steam and refrigerant R-134a are presented for both saturated and superheated cases. It is found that the buoyancy force significantly increases the wall shear stress and condensate mass flux. To a lesser degree, the buoyancy force also increases the wall heat flux. Superheating is found to have an insignificant effect on wall heat flux for a pure vapor.